Adventures by Alan and MelanieĀ
On our way south, we travelled through the cities of Rovinj and Pula before carving our way inland to explore Plitvice lakes (PlitviÄka jezera) national park. Our road trip was filled with history lessons and beautiful waterfalls, an excellent introduction to Croatia.
Our first stop on the climbing road-trip adventure was Calanques National Park on the Mediterranean coast of France. We started off strong with a pleasant hike into a small calanque which had a crag right on the beach. Our climbs were short but offered beautiful views of the turquoise water surrounded by limestone cliffs.
Per the modified plan, this post should have been called “Hike to Little Yosemite Valley”. With a shorter distance to cover (or so we thought), we got a later start, following a footpath in the snow through a beautiful valley. At one point we stopped to listen to a symphony of frogs cheering us on as we hiked.
After an incredible night’s sleep, we awoke in Lyell Canyon ready for a more mellow day of hiking. We began by walking through the lush river valley, stopping often to admire the wildlife and scenery. Eager to see what the trail had in store for us, I took the lead and nearly walked into a deer casually grazing feet from the trail. One of us was startled, and it wasn’t the deer!
Day 2 took us over Donohue pass and into the beautiful Lyell canyon
We woke up to gorgeous skies on the second day, and started off to tackle Donohue Pass, our most elevation gain in a single day of the entire hike. The trail (which was more of a series of 50 foot muddy segments split by large patches of snow) began by descending toward a rushing river. After admiring many waterfalls, we reached a water crossing where we encountered a group (pack? school?) of PCT hikers, who splashed right through the cold water rather than finding the dry log bridge.
A perfectly still and clear Thousand Island lake reflects Banner peak, and a thin sheet of ice remains on most of the lake. It’s an odd experience to see so much ice and snow in summer weather – it was at least 70Ā° while we were at the shore.
This was our first trip to Zion National Park! It has been on Melanie’s top 5 for ages and we finally made it – and boy did the park show us its best.
Over the last four years, Melanie and I have done a decent amount of rock climbing. The goal is always up there. This was opposite day, with the prize down below and awesome rappels to reach them. Continue reading “Mystery Canyoneering 101”